Salarvyáni Proxy Figures: The Legion of the Mace of Steel

From the collection of Mike Lung.

One of the challenges of wargaming on Tekumel is finding suitable figures. Inevitably one has to use proxy figures but these can be hard to source as well. It's often hard to get the right look. Black Tree Design's fantasy Saracens are pretty good as Salarvyáni proxy figures though, as can be seen in the pictures above, representing the Legion of the Mace of Steel. The Salarvyáni group their forces into composite units much like the Yan Koryani, so they might have heavy infantry, archers, light infantry in the same legion. Note that they don't actually call the force a legion, but that is a good english equivalent. 

The Salarvyáni national colour is black - Salarvyá is known as the Ebon Kingdom.  Salarvyáni males favour beards as well so the tendency is to make bearded proxy figures Salarvyáni; that doesn't mean bearded figures cannot be from other nations, just that many of the other empires tend to be more clean shaven. It should be noted that Baron Ald, a native of Saá Alláqi, wears a beard and some of the Tekumel Project Yán Koryáni have beards and/or mustaches. Our Tsolyáni are generally clean shaven, however.

Best Kept Secrets: Black Tree Designs' Fantasy Saracens

HM1230 - Saracen Elite Guards

Black Tree Design is having a sale, which has prompted me to post this in a bit of a rush.

Extended until Sept 11th, 2016. 

Historical and Fantasy Infantry 50% off. 

Giant Monsters 30% off. 

Doctor Who 30% off.

Why the rush?

Because I believe that Black Tree Designs' Fantasy Saracens make excellent proxy Salarvyáni, that's why! And if you agree, you might want to take advantage of the sale...

The figures are scaled slightly larger than our own, but not overly so IMO. I'm not sure how well they fit weapon and armour-wise with the army book descriptions. My book has gone on walkabout and is currently "lost" - possibly forever. A replacement is being sourced. Until then all I can say is "They look good to me"! 

They are bearded. Check. The poses are nicely varied. Check. The weapons are suitable. Check. The armour is suitably exotic, as are the shields. Check. (and we have variant shields available if required...)

The Palace Guards, shown below, appear to have an interesting "push-knife and shield" combination. See the detail pictures. One could use them that way or snip the blade off and use a regular shield.

HM1233 - Saracen Palace Guards

Shield Detail

Detail: Push-knife or plug?

HM1228 - Saracen Slave Guards

...with buckler.

The so-called "Slave Guards" need not actually be slaves for our purposes, merely lower class troops. Light infantry spearmen as were at the Battle of Ry, if memory serves.

The command packs have flags, which are coincidentally not bad for Salarvyáni. I'm afraid I botched the pics and put the standard bearers in the wrong packs. Keeping that in mind, the banner from pack HM1229 (shown broken in the bottom pic) has Arabic writing on it and so will need either substitution or conversion.

I found some Games Workshop Dark Elf bits on ebay that I thought worked well, and are shown below.

HM1229 - Saracen Command II

HM1233 - Saracen Command III

...with Dark Elf banner.

...other Dark Elf weapons.

Lastly, as I am going on about Salarvyáni I ought to remind you of these Scotia Grendel axemen. I may have blogged about these guys before. They get checks for beards, and nice variety of poses. The weapons would be ridiculously over-sized in metal, but made from chlén hide would not be as heavy as they look!

Scotia Grendel's "Men of the East"

Credit where credit is due: I did not paint the Serqu trooper in the pics above. He was done by one of Eureka's in-house painters IIRC. Name unknown.

J is for Jaikalór and Jakálla

Excerpt from original Swords and Glory map, by MAR Barker

Jaikalór and Jakálla are two cities on Tsolyánu's southern coast. I've blogged about Jakálla before over on the Tekumel Project blog...over here.

Jaikalór is not the metropolis that Jakálla is, but rather, a small city in Tsolyánu's Káija Protectorate. Both the city and protectorate were once part of Salarvyá and the Ebon Throne still covets them. Salarvyá lies to the south and east, on the far side of the Forest of Gilrayá whose flank the city is nestled under. It is described in Swords and Glory, as "...a flat, faceless town of shops, clacking cloth-looms, and the redolence of timber cut fresh from the Forest...", but with strong defenses built to defend against the non-human Hlutrgú who inhabit the Layóda Swamps.

The Legion of Lord Lángsha of Jaikalór is stationed in the city to provide for its defense.